My Lords, I thank all noble Lords for this constructive debate. It has been wonderful to hear expertise from across the House on such an important issue as environmental protections.
I remind everybody that this is day seven on Report of the levelling-up Bill, which we began in January with Second Reading, and this is the first time this issue has been brought to the attention of the House. We have to ask ourselves, why? I cannot remember who raised the fact that this issue was known about five years ago. The Government have known that it has been an issue of contention for housebuilders for a considerable number of years, yet it is brought to us on day seven on Report, in a form that means we cannot have any prior discussion of it. I wonder whether that relates to a sudden rise in the share price of house- building companies.
The argument that housebuilding is jeopardised unless the Government take action to throw out the protection of our watercourses is completely false. I think it may have been the noble Lord, Lord Deben, who said that more than 1 million planning permissions are awaiting development. As my noble friend Lady Parminter so expertly said, the sites in question—it is not everywhere; it is particular sites—are some of the most environmentally sensitive in this country, if not in Europe. Why would we put those sites at risk when there is an opportunity to protect them for the future of our children and grandchildren?
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The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and the noble Baroness, Lady Willis, emphasised the importance of evidence. Where is it? There is a vacuum when we look for evidence
in support of the government amendments. Indeed, there is the reverse: there is evidence that I think they have chosen to ignore.
The Government have framed the issue as an either/or: either housebuilding or the environment; either house- building or water protection. However, that is a totally false dichotomy. It is possible to build homes and protect our environment. Not only do these government amendments require local planning authorities to ignore protections; what is almost worse is that at an earlier stage of the Bill the Minister, who at that point was the noble Lord, Lord Benyon, was very pleased to tell the House how the government amendments were being brought forward to protect chalk streams. We were all delighted. However, chalk streams are some of the areas that will be affected if these government amendments go through. Therefore, two months ago, it was about protecting chalk streams—wonderful. Now it is about throwing out those protections on a whim.
We on these Benches will vigorously oppose those government amendments, and if and when they are brought to a vote, we will be in the Not-Content Lobby, particularly on Amendment 247YY and then the new schedule in Amendment 247YYA. You can have both housebuilding and environmental protection, and that is what we will vote for.